Michael Frederick Lockwood (born 6 February 1959) is a British former civil servant who has served in local government and as inaugural director general of the

Independent Office for Police Conduct The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is a non-departmental public body in England and Wales, responsible for overseeing the system for handling complaints made against police forces in England and Wales. It replaced the Independent ...

(IOPC), the policing watchdog for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

Career

Lockwood was the CEO of

Harrow London Borough Council Harrow London Borough Council , also known as Harrow Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Harrow in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Conservative majorit ...

from 2007 until the end of 2013, when the position was eliminated, and again from 2015 after it was reinstituted. In the interim, he was executive director of finance and policy at the

Local Government Association The Local Government Association (LGA) is the national membership body for local government in England, local authorities in England and Wales. Its core membership is made up of 317 English councils and the 22 Welsh councils through the ...

. After the 2017

Grenfell Tower fire On 14 June 2017, a List of fires in high-rise buildings, high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of Public housing in the United Kingdom, flats in North Kensington, West London, England, at 00:54 British Summer Time, BST ...

, he led recovery work and liaised with survivors and victims' families. The Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission chose him as co-chair in early 2020. He was appointed by the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

to head the

IOPC The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is a non-departmental public body in England and Wales, responsible for overseeing the system for handling complaints made against police forces in England and Wales. It replaced the Independent ...

from its inception in January 2018. As Director General, Lockwood also chaired the IOPC Board, the majority of which is made up of Non-Executive Directors. The Board advises the Director General and with him sets the strategy for the organisation. In October 2019 Lockwood published an op-ed in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', defending an investigation his organization had performed into the case of an alleged VIP paedophile ring. He resigned as Director General on 3 December 2022 after he became the subject of a police investigation. He was charged with sexual offences against two girls, alleged to have occurred in

Humberside Humberside () was a non-metropolitan and ceremonial county in Northern England from 1 April 1974 until 1 April 1996. It was composed of land from either side of the Humber, created from portions of the East Riding of Yorkshire, West Riding of ...

in the 1980s; on 23 July 2024, he was found not guilty on all charges.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lockwood, Michael Living people 1959 births English nonprofit executives 21st-century English businesspeople Local government officers in England People acquitted of rape